Various attempts have been made to enhance a virtual reality or three dimensional (3D) experience of user. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,490,784 provides a motion simulating device with up to 6 degrees of freedom. The motion simulating device appears to provide for feeling that the user is in either land based or aeronautical vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,487,749 provides a cylindrical chamber with a cylindrical pin casing and retractable pins lining the chamber. This allows the user to interact with the pins by pushing on the pins. The pins provide haptic feedback to the user in coordination with a 3D immersive environment. Several non-patented, from what the inventor has found, attempts have also been made to enhance the haptic experience of user. For example, a device at somniacs.co under the Trademark name of Birdly® provides a 3D interactive haptic experience that simulates that a user is flying. The device utilizes a fan position on the front of a device in which a user lays with the user's hands spread apart, similar to if a person was positioned horizontally and using the persons arms as wings. However, none of the devices that the user knows of have been used to simulate swimming or immersion into a fluid environment. Similarly, the user does not know of any fluid haptic devices that can be utilized to enhance sensory interaction between a user and a 3D environment via the temperature interface between the user and a fluid.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,219,315 utilizes a fluid based simulator to simulate rapids or waves. This allows the simulation device to simulate a river or other body of water including waves or rapids such as to simulate a white water rafting experience.
What is needed is a device and method to enhance a user's haptic 3-D experience and to provide an improved interactive 3-D experience to simulate flying or swimming in order to maximize a user's 3-D experience.